Additional Installation shots

 

Installation

Yesterday, the 11th of August, the three-panel work for the Hallie Ford Center was installed.  It took two long days to install after nearly six months of studio work.  I had the excellent assistance of artist Totem Shriver and art historian Brian Winkenweder.  Lighting on the second and third floors is not complete but the work is in place.  These are preliminary shots (Winkenweder).  More later when the rest of the lights are in.  The final panel was modified in the final days with the critical and practical assistance of many friends and, most importantly, my partner, María Isabel Piñas, soon to be "de Mills!!)

Rick Setterstein, Director of the Center (left) with Ron Mills.

Additional figures on the lobby panel (roughly 22' wide x 8.5')

There was some concern that the former two groups of figures suggested some estrangement (my words) that seemed best dealt with by adding additional figures to bridge across the divide, including some figures facing the viewer, which was missing.   I also tried harder to instill more glee and human happiness, shifting the emphasis somewhat from the natural world to human habitation and interaction.   I am still tinkering with the color balances and a few details, but suggest this as the solution to the thematic issue raised by one of the committee members.  

Nearing completion of third and final panel

Still tinkering with things but am feeling that this panel is about there....waiting for a little feedback from the committee...have made a few changes since these shots, mostly to the contours of the standing figures and a bit of work in the clouds.  My partner, Isabel, made great suggestions too, leading to substantive changes.  At about 22 feet wide, the piece is panoramic, expansive and saturated in color. 

Adding figures....much more to go...

Texture field layered, right side trees are incomplete.

Third Panel underway (this is the big one!)

Full composition at about 22' wide, plus.  Figures will be laid in soon.

Right side (incomplete)

Left side (incomplete)

Salmon

Thanks to great suggestions from the OSU and Oregon Arts Commission committee during their last studio visit, Sheri, Rich and Saralyn in attendance, the blue panel has undergone some subtle but important revisions just before coming off the work wall.  Most notably, the mural gained salmon, largely due to Saralyn's suggestion that the salmon is a spiritual symbol in the region, and that such imagery, however suggestive, might play well with the other imagery in the mural.  Once I started laying in salmon forms in the mural I found several places for them.    How many do you find?